UH Manoa College of Education's Ho'okulaiwi receives second year of funding from OHA

UH Mānoa‘s Center for Native Hawaiian and Indigenous Education, known as Hoʻokulāiwi: ʻAha Hoʻonaʻauao ʻŌiwi, has received its second year of funding of $375,000 from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. The funding will provide support for professional development, curriculum development, and research dissemination by Hoʻokulāiwi students and faculty.

Currently, twenty five preservice teachers, seventeen of whom are Native Hawaiian, are completing their final semester in the Kuaʻana Cohort (2007—09). The Kuaʻana teachers are placed in either Nānākuli, Waiʻanae or Hawaiian immersion schools, and will graduate with master‘s degrees and teaching certifications. In the Kaina Cohort (2008—10), thirteen preservice teachers, including ten who are Native Hawaiian, have just completed a pilot field experience designed by the community. Participants rotate through various internships in the community, including elementary and secondary schools in Nānākuli, the Boys and Girls Club, and the Waiʻanae Coast Comprehensive Health Center. Lastly, the Niʻihau Teacher Education Initiative is designed to provide professional development opportunities to educators from Niʻihau School. Five veteran teachers, who have just completed two courses for their bachelors in education, will graduate with teacher certification by 2013.

Kauaanuhea Lenchanko, a Hoʻokulāiwi faculty member and Waiʻanae resident, notes, "Support from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is allowing us to develop a range of exciting educational initiatives for my community. The project that I am working on with kupuna — documenting their stories for elementary school children — will provide critically needed literacy resources that are both familiar and exciting."

In addition to supporting professional development, Hoʻokulāiwi faculty and students have presented their research at local, national, and international conferences. Hoʻokulāiwi is organizing a special April 2009 issue of AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Scholarship, to be titled Ke Au Hou: New Horizons in Hawaiian Research and Development. It will provide a venue for Native Hawaiian scholars to publish their research in an international arena. For more information about Hoʻokulāiwi, please contact Margie Maaka at marg@hawaii.edu or Pohai Kukea Shultz at pohai@hawaii.edu